Jim’s Group – Playtest 10 May 13

Between sessions, I’d decided after seeing that both Blood & Smoke and Dave’s Mage rules to tide folks over until and unless Awakening gets the GMC treatment give their supernatural critters 10 dots of Merits to start with, I would do the same and see how that worked out. It worked out fairly well, with folks picking up a variety of Merits, from Meditative Mind to Retainer to Professional Training. Once that was settled and we were ready, we began.

Last session, we’d ended with Brock convincing Dice to turn herself in to the police. We picked up there this session – Dice left to do some prep before hitting the police station, and Brock left to find a location nearby to set up.

Brock found a hotel across the street and paid for a room on the street facing the police station. He texted Dice to let her know where he was, and when she was prepped, she met him there. They went over the plan one last time, double-checked the bug in Dice’s shoe, and then she was off.

She left the hotel and took a nice circuitous route to get back to the police station. Heading in, she pretended to be nervous and a little frightened and asked to see Detective Fenton. After some back-and-forth, the desk sergeant finally got Detective Fenton, who brought Dice to an interrogation room after frisking her and taking her messenger bag (in order to preserve officer safety).

After retrieving the Ramirez file from his desk, the detective returned and asked Dice to recount her information. She began to spin a story about hearing this or that on the street, and proceeded to make a valiant attempt to throw Mr. Grey under the bus by implicating him in some sort of involvement with George’s death. Unfortunately for Dice, she didn’t really have any solid information on Mr. Grey (at least, not that she could tell a cop – it’s not like “I’m pretty sure he’s an angel” is something she could have said). As such, Detective Fenton felt that Dice was basically wasting his time. And although he recognized her from the police ball the previous evening, he didn’t have any proof to charge her with anything.

However, before letting her go, he asked if she could hang on a moment. He left and returned in a few minutes with a woman who he introduced as Agent Snyder. She explained that she was also investigating George due to suspected ties in a federal matter, and proceeded to ask Dice a lot of the same questions that the detective had. This of course made Dice more than a little suspicious about the entire affair as well as wondering what exactly they’d stumbled into if there was now federal attention on the situation.

As the interview went on, Dice noticed that the interrogation room’s camera no longer had a light on, despite appearing to work just fine when she came in. She questioned that change, but the agent brushed it off.

Eventually, Dice was let go with an admonishment not to leave town “just in case.” Between that and the agent’s suggestion at one point that Dice may want to obtain a lawyer before saying anything incriminating, Dice was fairly certain the ring had found itself in deeper trouble than originally anticipated.

Meanwhile, the others went about their own private business. Victor visited his Cover’s sister, Anya went back to her office to check her messages (realizing she was behind on her casework), and Marv held a Bible study at his church. At the end of the Bible study, one of the attendees stayed behind to talk to Marv, and talked about her drug addiction. She also mentioned that she’d been going to this self-help group called “Premier People,” but that they hadn’t really helped her and in fact she thought they just seemed a “little weird.”

Shortly thereafter, everyone reconvened at the church and traded notes on things they found out. They decided to investigate both Premier People and Agent Snyder. Victor, Brock, and Anya did research on Agent Snyder, utilizing a combination of Victor’s computer skills, Brock’s contacts in the espionage community, and Anya’s investigative savvy. They discovered that she was presently not listed as an agent of any particular organization, but that she had last been associated with the FBI. This of course didn’t make the characters feel any better about their situation.

They also researched Premier People and found it to be a local self-help group. Looking at the group’s website, they found that they held various events for members from time to time, and that one (a social dinner at a local buffet) was being held this evening.

Deciding to go, the ring made plans on going separately and what the plan would be in general. Heading off to the buffet separately, they each arrived and found that the group had a separate room to themselves for eating. However, they still did have to go up to the buffet to get food, which gave the demons ample opportunity to talk to them.

Various characters got to talk to members of the group, and Anya managed to get in and sit with them, but sadly none of the group’s leaders were present. However, Dice recognized two of the members as the man from the ER waiting room at Sunrise Hospital, and the man who picked him up. Dice quickly texted the rest of the ring and they summarily left as they arrived, worried that they might be identified by the men.

Quickly returning to the church yet again, the characters discussed their next course of action. While they were doing so, there was a knock at the door. Marv answered the door but found nobody outside, only an envelope on the ground. He brought it back inside and they found that within the envelope was a 3×5 card. On the card, written in black marker was the word “Answers?” with an address.

Brock quickly went outside and looked around, trying to see if there were any good sightlines on the door, or anywhere someone could be watching. He didn’t find anything, though. Anya came out and investigated using Synthesis, discovering a boot scuff on the ground and two scents – a woman’s perfume and cordite, as if the woman worked with guns or bullets or something.

Checking the address, the ring found that it belonged to a recycling center in North Las Vegas, which didn’t endear them to the situation. Understandably tense about seemingly being discovered, the ring discussed options and decided that they would need to spring the obvious trap in order to gain more information.

They traveled to the recycling center, and found that the building itself was dark, but the yard behind the building was lit up. Marv stopped the car on the outside of the gate (so as to not get trapped should their mysterious targets choose to do so), and the ring got out and prepared themselves for combat. Brock opened the trunk and, calling upon Infinite Pockets, pulled out a small box containing radios for the group.

Geared up, the ring entered the fenced in area and found a man standing in plain sight, alone, dressed in khaki pants and suit jacket and a blue shirt. Brock, paranoid and suspicious the entire time, activated his Infrared Sight ability and immediately picked up on two red beams of light from two laser sights as they acquired targets.

He immediately called out a warning and trained his pistol on one of the shooters. The man called for calm and informed the ring that they just wanted to talk and that any overwatch was purely there as a precaution. Brock insisted that the laser sights be turned off, and the man ordered his backup to stand down.

Getting to the discussion, the man introduced himself as “Mr. Plinth” and noted that the ring had recently made some noise around town in certain circles. Much back-and-forth was had as each side attempted to figure out exactly who the other was, but in the end everyone was satisfied that everyone present was a demon. While that in and of itself wasn’t an indication of safety or camaraderie in any sense, it was more assuring than either side being made up of angels.

Somewhat more at ease, the ring discussed issues with Mr. Plinth and in the end they came to a sort of détente – the ring would continue investigation, although they would make a better attempt at staying quiet and not doing things like going to the police fundraiser ball and making a ruckus, while Mr. Plinth and his associates would leverage some of their influence to support the ring’s activities. In addition, if the ring did well and gained Mr. Plinth’s trust (at least to the extent that one demon could trust another), they may well be invited to join his association, but that would be up to them on a case-by-case basis.

The ring left to make further plans and to wait to hear back from Mr. Plinth, who had agreed to do some digging on Agent Snyder, as the ring suspected her to be up to no good, although they were unsure as to what exactly that would be.

End Session

Notes:

–          Not many notes at all this session, as everything went rather smoothly. However, keeping in theme, Brock’s player decided that breaking In My Pocket wasn’t good enough, so he picked up Infinite Pockets as well. Which brought up the question: to utilize Infinite Pockets, does a demon just have to imagine whatever he wants to pull out of a container? Does he have to own it? See it? Or to put it another way, is there any limit whatsoever on what a demon can pull out of whatever? In My Pocket can’t pull specific items, but Infinite Pockets can, so is that the power du jour in regards to snatching whatever a demon wants? (With the appropriate risks for using such a power, of course.) (Infinite Pockets and In My Pocket have been gotten streamlined, like, this week as I’ve been working on my development pass. For Infinite Pockets, you’re pulling out a specific object, so you need to be able to picture that object. Given a demon’s memory, that’s not a huge problem in itself, but the best way to use the power is to have the stuff you need in a safe place so you can grab it when necessary.)

–          Actually, that’s really the only note since we didn’t really do much with anything new this time outside of Infinite Pockets. The extra Merit dots were helpful though for people to pick up a few social Merits that were good for rounding out the characters just a bit.